Friday, 24 June 2016

To Europe with love

Because I'm bloody gutted and angry and heartbroken that today my right and privilege to be European has been taken away from me ...

I'm compelled to post on a little city in Europe's heart, and close to its capital.The fact that it's called Ghent, and also Gent, and Gand, depending on whether you are speaking English or Dutch/Flemish or German or French expresses to me perfectly the whole point and beauty of the European Union - that it is possible to maintain our uniqueness while appreciating and benefiting from our combined value.

As everywhere in Belgium there's no shortage of high-end fine dining here

Vrijmoed Restaurant, Gentbut there's just as much concern with the quality of ordinary, everyday food

Belgian beer and frites

Belgian waffles, of course

Sole with garnaaltjes (crevettes), the small grey shrimps from the North Sea, with ... frites, obviously

And less traditionally, the new vegan venture of Alain Coumont, founder of the world-wide Le Pain Quotidien - one of my most favourite places in London to stop in for a bowl of decent coffee and good Belgian bread and patisserie.

It's called Le Botaniste, and the combination of old apothecary interior and delicious organic vegan food has been replicated in a second opening in New York recently. (Will he want to bring it to London now?)

I'm sorry, Europe, that we've forgotten the lessons of history and fractured our union

forested suburb of Gent

that we've allowed a discourse of 'us versus them' to blind us to the fact that we can celebrate what's uniquely ours while enjoying our differences

that mistrust and fear and stupid politicking have prevailed over solidarity and sharing of resources and languages and culture.

9 comments:

having just spent two weeks travelling through france to northern spain partly inspired by one of your journeys, i too am devastated by this decision. all the lovely fellow europeans we have met and spoken with who 'we' have now turned our backs on. i am quite honestly ashamed of this decision taken by just over half the people of this country.....and especially for our young people. its made up my daughters mind to take up the job offer in nyc

Thank you, dear Karen, for this post. I am following post-referendum news with great interest, and truly value posts written by folks like you are and will be affected directly by the results. I expect that it is hard to predict right now just where the ripples will cease.

Being in Houston, Texas I can see both sides of this issue. WE are suffering too. Suffering from an influx of people who arrive illegally, who get everything "free," who do not assimilate, never learn the language, etc. etc.Our children in public schools have papers written in both English & Spanish (which seriously maddens a lot of people), so we send our kids to private schools and pay high $$$. The horror of Orlando has made even me afraid. Afriad to go to a movie theatre or anywhere where crowds gather, so our entire lives are being changed little by little. We are losing our freedoms one at a time. Of course, it's all political, it's all because we have short-sighted leaders who make decisions effecting the entire world. Who knows, if our idiot President Carter hadn't let the Shah of Iran fall we wouldn't have terrorists at all...but, hey, that was decades ago. So history is important, actions are important. None of us want terrorists infiltrating our lives, but some of them are born here as they are in the UK. Terrorists. Changing our lives because we are all living in fear. xx's

I think my friend summed the situation up well when she said 'We love Europe but not the EU monolith' We have governed ourselves for centuries and felt that although we abided by the rules of the EU other nations flouted the new laws and continued to live as they always did, so perhaps we are just following suit. \we are still your good neighbour and friendand cannot change that.

I think my friend summed the situation up well when she said 'We love Europe but not the EU monolith' We have governed ourselves for centuries and felt that although we abided by the rules of the EU other nations flouted the new laws and continued to live as they always did, so perhaps we are just following suit. \we are still your good neighbour and friendand cannot change that.